Public safety personnel, such as police officers, firefighters, paramedics and the like typically utilize numerous communication devices while working in the field. Public safety communication devices include, for example, mobile radios such as handheld radios and/or vehicular radios along with remote accessories, such as remote microphones, speakers, earpieces, headsets and the like. These primary mission critical devices and the infrastructure to support their operation are typically realized in the form of a narrowband communication system operating via a private network governed by a public safety agency.
Further, public safety personnel often carry additional non-mission critical devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, electronic notepads and the like which operate over a broadband communication system. These secondary, non-mission critical devices are often used to monitor radio channels that are in addition to radio channels monitored using the primary, mission critical devices.
However, listening and responding to calls that are monitored and received on the broadband system can be problematic, particularly in noisy environments such as at incident scenes, as non-mission critical broadband devices often have significant limitations regarding the audio capabilities of in-built, consumer-grade speakers and microphones.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved communication method and system for transferring an audio signal between devices of a single user.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.